1881-12-10 — Page 2

AND

A. S. WATSON & Œo. WHOLESALE AND RETAIL DRUGGISTS GENERAL CHEMISTS,

Manufacturers of the following

“TAERATED. WATERS, viz : SODA, TONIC, -SARSA PARILLA, AND POTASI, LEMONADE, GINGERADE, RASPBERRYADE, AND PHOSPHORIC CHAMPAGNE. Deliveries in Towa and Harbour from

7 AM to 7 P.M.

SHIPS' MEDICIENE CHESTS REFITCED, PASSENGER SHIPS SUPPLIED.

Prompt Attention given to Coast Orders.

HONGKONG DISPENSARY.

HONGKONG. SHANGHAI PHARMACY,

SHANGHAI

CANTON.

FoocHow.

CANTON DISPENSARY,

THE DISPENSARY,

BIRTH. On the 9th instant, at No. 4, Blue Build- : ings, Praya East, Hongkong, the wife of

Inspector M. J. ADAMS, of a daughter.

THE

Hongkong Telegraph.

HONGKONG: 10TH DECEMBER, 1881.

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH-SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10TH, 1881.

because they would, if they attempted it, hilf drown the inhabitants of the hors

boneath them.

In each partition of the main room, a family, or sovoral me ubers of a family, sloop, The mm go so tre public privius; the women ant children us3 covered poti, which are kept in the partitions under the bad; the night soil is removed on an average, every third day; it varios in some cases from two to five days.

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havo found them, and I think it will not be found difficult, after this explanation, for those who real this account to present to their imaginations a slight id in of the tato of filth in which at present the lowest class of Chinese exist. I have not spoken of the state of the drains in the better quarters of the town, for that is patent to the eyes and nosos of the public and attracts sufficient

attention. If it were not for the heavy rains flushing them frequently in the hot weather, matters would be worse still...

of Dr. Ayres, the Colonial Surgeon, dated 5th April, 1875, which, for reasons of State, better understood by the officials then in power than by the general community, was so cruelly burked by Messrs. J. Gardiner Austin and Cecil C., Smith, The document is rather a longthy ono; but as it is of paramount interest and importance at the pre-

Wanın of the lowest class rarely wash sent time, by clearly showing the thonsalves; men, only the exposed parts The typhoon was a great sanitary visitor actual position of affairs before

of their parsons. I have seen many wo- in the lower quartors of the town, and mon who have candidly confessed thist though it caused a great amount of do- and thus enabling us to make a the advent of the present Governor, they have not oren wiped themselves downstruction of rotten old buildings, it did a

with a damp cloth (which is the Chinoso | world of good fair comparison between the, sani-muls of washing) for years, and I saw no tary condition of the Colony in 1875, washing is done, either of bodies or clothes, roason to doubt their words. If any and what actually exists to-day, wo it is generally done in the kitchen. Olathos ased offer no apology for reproducing wasting varies from one or twice a month it. We may stato that. Dr. Ayres to once in several months, or not all, and views on the question of sanitation a catton suit will last. I am told from five to six years, and moro; if they were washed in Hongkong, were embodied in his

often they would not last so long. Many Annual Report for the year 1874, articles of clothing are novor washod at and forwarded to Mr. C. C. Smith, all. on any account; those that are quilted who was then Acting Colonial Secre- for instancs. Bedding is composed of tary. Nothing more was publicly quilted cotton, or a stuff resembling soft heard of them until they were re

felt, covered by n light not to provent it from touring, and in no case is ever, wash- printed in a volume of parliamentary ed; sheets are never used. I novor saw papers by the present Governor of any entirely now bedding; the nowost I the Colony.

saw was three years in possession of the owner, and he had bought it second-hand. I hayo seen bedding twenty years old, and that was bought second-hand. It is taken out and sirel occasionally, and a few of tho vernim picked out, if they are found to be too namorous.

"On the subject of Sanitation. I also made along special report at the begin ning of this year, and, for that report, I. made a series of inspections in company with my Inspectors. I have this wintor made another series of inspections in com- pany with Mr. Price, the Surveyor-Gene-daily by onch individual is about two The average quantity of water used ral. The rosult of these inspections goes

quarts, and this is considerad sufficient, as to prove that, howover much on the sur- face the town of Victorin may appear

a rule, for cooking, drinking and washing pur osoa. Often it has to be brought from cleaner than most Eastern towns, botioath,

a considerable distanco, and this is trouble- the surface it would be difficult to find a

some and expensivo, so they do with ns Gilthier condition of things.

little as possible.

My first series of inspections discovered

Kitchens' average size is 13 foot by 6 that pigs were kept in houses all over the

foot by 10 foot high, with stone or tilo town, by hundreds, and that pigstias were

floors, always very wat and dirty. It is to be found under the beds and in the

rare to find a chimney; thore is generally kitchens of first, second, and third floors.

a square oponing in each of the floors I visited many houses in which over a

above, forming a sort of shaft, without hundred pigs were kept; every bed in

walls to it, and the smoke gets up through these houses had from five to seven largo

these if it can, or escapes, by a stall win- pigs in a sty constructed underneath it,

dow; that is to say, part of it; the rest an either from the connivanos or ignor-pervarles the house. In each kitchen there ance of a late Inspector of Markets, whose duty it was to see that the pigs were kept in proper places, many of the people had Government Licences so to keep their pigs. Imagino houses whose upper Roors are constructed of thin boards, with wide in- terstices between then, and whose lower fors are mad, and the state they would be under those circumstances, with pigs' urius, &e., dropping from floor to floor! It is noodless to observe that the minute

is a small drain in the upper floors; the opening is connected with a downspout, which either passes outside the house or down through the kitchens below. All the inhabitants, whon at home, of avory floor

urinate in their kitchen drain; this is a rajo without an exception The walls and

ceilings of the kitchens are always covered

with a thick layer of soot.

ONE of the subjects on which H.E. the Governor has widely differed with the general community-if the local press is to be believed-is in connec- tion with the proposed alterations in the existing system of sanitation in Hongkong. We have been told by Our contemporaries that Governor Hennessy has over-ridden and over- ruled the wishes and opinions of in- fluential sections of the foreign com- munity, and allowed the sanitary affairs of the Colony to fall into a most disgraceful condition, simply with a desire to thwart the proposals of Europeans and to gain grace with the leading Chinese. As a matter of fact there is not a single word of truth in the whole of these sweeping this state of things was brought to the accusations. The community at notice of Government, it was at once put large have exhibited the utmost in- a stop to, and that now all pigs found in houses are confiscated, and, on repetition difference in this, as in most other

of the offence, the owner is fined as well. questions affecting our local welfare;

The late inspections were still more the only differences have been be- thoroughly done, and nearly every street, tween the Governor and the Survey-lano, nod alley in the lower quarter of the or-General's Department, or perhaps we should more properly say, the Surveyor-General himself. Mr. J. M. Price, one of the shrewdest and most accomplished of our civil servants, has strenuously, advocated a sani- tary system for Hongkong based on the improved principles of modern science as applied to great European cities. He would treat this Colony the downspouts of the different floors of which, in many places, havo sunk into the

tion of the houses, drains, &c., were taken carefully, with the following results:-

town were visited, and notes of the condi-

There are three differant styles of con- struction of houses in the lower quarters of the town. First, houses which are con-

structed in blocks, back to back, with no ventilation oxcept from the front. Se- condly, houses with narrow gullies from 1 foot to 6 feet wide at the back, down which a filthy opon drain runs, or a very dilapidated closed one. Into Lhose.deuins exactly as if it were in England in-

the houses on onch side of the gally empty stead, of in the Far East. The Go-

themselves. Thirdly, houses with lanes at vernor on the other hand, backed up the back, for the convenience of the inha by the whole Chinese community,bitants of the cellar floors, the back of and relying on the opinions of emi- these flours being formed of the ground of the street abova, owing to the hilly nature nent men like Dr. Dudgeon, has fa-

of the ground on which the house is built. voured a system which he considers Otherwise, the construction of these better-suited to a tropical climate, houses is the same throughout the town. and more in accordance with the Each floor consists of a large main room customs of the Chinese people. As and a small kitchen; generally the kitchen is at the back, but in cases where the back is well known, the points in dispute of the floor is against the hill side, the were sent to the Secretary of State kitchen is in the front, and whatever ven- for the Colonies, and a gentleman tilation there is, the air has to come specially deputed to report on the through the kitchen before it reaches the whole question has already arrived in Hongkong:

inhabitants in the main room.

The average size of the main roomas is 20 foot by 14 foot, by 10 foot high, cuntain- ing eight partitions, averaging 7 feet by 6 feet by 7 foot high, over-which-a sort of

loft is often built to increase the accom- modation, and in a room of this descrip- tion, from 10 to 25 people live. It is ex tremely rare to find that walls or ceiling (which is composed of the bare rafters and boards of the floor above, or of the roof)

We have heard a great deal lately about suppressing official reports, and Governor. Hennessy especially has been, censured in no unmeasured terms.for certain proceedings in that line which occurred long before His Excellency over came to Hongkong,

have aver been whitewashed; if they havo, That, of course, means very little, as

it was only when the house was first built; it is only in keeping with the usual the walls are generally bare bricks. The policy of the old established news-ground floor is, in nine cases out of ten, papers, and the interested politicians composed of mud; in the other caso, it is whose views these so-called public composed of tiles or stone flags, and is organs so faithfully represent. We generally very damp. The upper floors are composed of rough quarter inch planks, purpose, however, to get His Ex- with wide interstices between them. In cellency right with the community po caso, from the time the house had been on this sanitation question at least. built, had the floors ever been washed, This can be best accomplished by their construction, as a rule, rendering it faithfully transcribing in full the celebrated Report on this subject

impossible. The first floor tenants cannot wash their floors, booause they are mud the upper floor tenants cannot wash theirs;

Ground floors, as a rule, are very dark; averaging 3 foot by 2 feet, and the door, the rooms usually have only one window. for light and air to come through, and they require lamps to be burning day as well as night in order to see anything. The up por floors are often not much better.

The house drain is generally in a filthy conlition, and in many cases choked: the downspouts are often in the same condi- tion. Those latter are, for the most part composed of unglazed pottery pipings, and on the walls down which they run, on either side of them is seen a dark, damp stain, showing liow the filthy liquids they convey filtor through them, or escapes from the joints, into the walls of the houses.

The drains in the gullies, lanes, and smaller streets appear originally to have been very badly constructed of rough cut and unfaced stones, loosely put together,

The Shanghai Mercury states that the Flying Squadron left that port for Hongkong on the 6th inst.

Tao O. & O., Steamship Company's tumor Balgic will go into the Cosmo- politan Dook this afternoon.

A telegram, received yesterday after. noon, announces that Captain Brown: ring and four men of H.M.S. London have been killed in an attack upon a alavo junk off Zanzibar,

The Danish schooner. Nadashda, re. ported last week as being adrift in a disabled condition in the vicinity of by the Chinese nan-of-war Oha-20.- Niugpo, has been towed into that port

Rising Sun.

ין.

From this it will be 8300 that every cholera or forers of a typhoid charactor, if condition exists for the developement of the seeds are once sown, they will have fair start. Port Louis, Mauritius, a town similarly situated at the base of high hills, with every similar convenience for a good drainage, and having an equally bad stato of thing, but certainly not worse, has suffered most severely from epidemics, though onco it was renowned sanitarium. I was in the Colonial service there in the fover epidemic of 1867 and 1803. I sincerely hope I may never age auch another, the death rate at one time exceeding 600 people daily. Let the rains fall short, or the monsoons cease to blow here for a time, and longkong would be the conocently had her periodical dooking, has

of a similar entastrophe. That condition of things occurred in the Mauritius, and it is not impossible it may occur hore.

Hongkong has still an evil name; that it.onco deserved it, there is no doubt, though it does not at present; whether it will ever deserve it again is the question which unless some improvement takes place in the water supply and drainage, it is impossible may be answered in thỏ af- affirmative in the future.

A telegram date i London, December 9th states that the Bureaux of the First Chamber at the Hague has instracted

the Netherlands Minister for the Colo-

nies that owing to a charter have been

granted to the British North Borneo

Company it is dosirable to fix a line of demarcation between British and Ne thorlands territory in the West and

East of Borneo.

It would appear from the Shanghai papors received this morning that the young Princes have beon sponding a very pleasant time in and about the Model Settlement. The trip upcountry proved a great success, the party ineeting with fine weather; and fairly good sport. Tho youngsters made a holding good positions throughout the very good show in a Paper Chase, run, and finishing close up. They have boon going about a good deal without making any unnecessary fuss. After attending a big dinner at the British Consulate on the orening of the 2nd, they patronised the performance of "The Rivala" by the inombors of the Amateur Dramatic Club, an expressed themselves highly pleasel. We shall whatever festivities may be prepared no doubt see them taking part for thein in Hongkong.

Some of our military friends would appear to have been indulging in a little bit of sky.larking. It seeing that on Thursday evening three Parsee gentlemen were walking in the vici nity of the Kennedy Road, when two, out of a party of four, soldiers belong-

ground quite out of their original position, and quite as much liquid as the drains onery off filters out of them into the ground. I have found in many cases from six to eighteen inches of semi-solid, black, putriding to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, filth stagnant in them, according to their size. Many of them have never been opened since they were first constructed twenty or thirty years ago, and some of then have been built over at parts, and their outlets choked, lost and forgotten; out of such places as those tons and tons of filth have been removed only to accu- mulate again.

In some streets large now sewers have beon lately constructed by Government. I notice the house drains are not connect ed with these sowers, and I am informed that, in the existing state of the law, householders cannot be made to connect their drains with the now sowers.

Many houses in Tai-ping-shan have wells oither in the main room or kitchong of the ground-floors, and these wells are

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An amended programme for the Hongkong Race Meeting of 1832 was only alteration in that proviously issued oirculated yesterday afternoon. The

is the substitution of " Inniskilling" for Garrison Cup. The value of this prizo, contributed by the Officers of the Janiskillings, is $259. The con- ditions of the race remain unaltered.

The Wivern, turret-ship, having re.

now been turned off the hands of the dockyard authorities, after a through oxamination for the discovery and re- pair of small defects. The Cleopatra, 14, screw corvette, Captain Durant, also recently docked, has taken up her sta- tion at the eastern end of the man.of. war anchorage, and the ships of the Dotached Squadron when they arrive will anchor in line and to the west. ward of her,

A meeting of the St. Mary Magda, lene Chapter (Rose Croix) was held at Freemason's Hall on Thursday evening when D. W. Stanley Adams The following appointments were made was installed as M. W. Sovereign. for the ensuing year;-High Prelate, E. C. Ray; First General, H. Smith; Second General, W. M. Dean; Grand Marshal, W. Danby; Raphael, L. Mal. lory; Captain of Guard, Dr. Young; Treasurer, P. B. C. Ayres; Recorder, Davis, T. C. Hughes; and Almoner, J. K.

An inquost was held at the Govora- ment Civil Hospital yesterday after- noon boforo Mr. H. E. Wodehouse, W. Scott, L. A. H.. James, and J. W. Coroner, and a jury composed of Messrs. Crakar, on the body of Nichol Harvey, late master of the steamship Cleveland, who was found dead in his cabin, shot through the brain at Aberdeen Dock on the 8th instant. The finding of the body was deposed to, and evidence elicited showing that Captain Harvey had for: some time past been in rather- depressed spirits. Ultimately the jury committed suicide whilst in a state of returned a verdict that the deceased had

temporary insanity.

We published on Thursday a letter from our Amoy correspondent in which it was stated that the German bark Pallas, whilst on a voyage from the North struck on the rocks near Dodd

Island. We now learn that on the 5th inst, the steamer Europe reported the accident at Amoy, and the German corvette Hertha, which was lying, ia that port went out to render assistance, but returned without being able to find the stranded bark. The vessel was in such a position that nothing could be done to save her, she having, in an attempt to anchor, drifted on to the rocks where she remained fast. The.

vessel and cargo have since been sold by auction at Amoy, when the ship realised $400 and the cargo $700.

seized one of the gentlemen round the waist, evidently desirous of having a wrestling match. No violence worthy of the name was used, and no robbery attempted. The Parsees being tho roughly alarmed shouted for help, and the soldiers thinking the joko had gone far enough decamped, and whilst run- ning along the road made a foolish at tempt to scare another gantlomau ina similar fashion. The practical jokers got off scot-free, but we learn that two non, who are supposed to be the cul- The following letter from a corre« prits, have been arrested by the mili-spondent to the Mercury on the subject try authorities. It is quite necessary of the Shanghai Caledonian Ball con- that strict discipline should be main- veys a hint which might with advan-- tained in the regiment; and peaceful tage bo adopted in Hongkong The invariably within one or two feet of the residents must at all hazards be pro- roport in your contemporary of the house drains and downspouts. In some tected from annoyances of the kind al. Caledonial Ball the other night, how- over full of gush and swagger, is sadly cases the water smells or tastes so bad ladod to above. Should the two men that it is not used for drinking, but in be identified, it is but right that they wanting in accuracy. It is quite por- others, where there is no smell and the should be punishod for their folly sible that the Ball may have appeared. water is only apparently alightly foul, the water is used for drinking. In some of However, we must protost most om-admirable to a Brahman just emerged the Innes large publio wells exist; and the phatically against the grossly exag from his seclusion, but to people who drains invariably run close alongside them, gerato i nocoant of the escapade which have been living in Shanghai for sa and the condition of things is such that uppoars in the Daily Press. Our morn- series of years, and seen many a well- the sewage must filter through the earthing contemporary characterises the conducted ball here, it appears, quite in many cases, and mix more or loss with drunken freak as an atrocious act of otherwise. The Stewards were too the water in the wells. When the water violence," whereas the letter of com- much occupied in dancing themselves to is not used for drinking, it is used for washing vegetables for the markets, for plaiut sont by one of the gentlemen attend to their guests. Your coatom- washing clothes, and often for proparing who was assaulted; merely states that porary praises the Band, which was one of the party was "caught hold of execrable it was almost impossible to by the collar," and then they ran away. dance to it."

food, &o.

This is a simple statement of facts as I

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